"Mrs. and Mr. Turner"

The moment your phone rang, and you saw the school's number flashing on the screen, your stomach dropped. You already knew. Theodore had been acting up again.

Alex had only just returned from a reunion tour with the boys, his suitcase still half-unpacked in the bedroom. You hadn’t wanted to ruin the warm welcome home with yet another report of misbehavior. But how much longer could you keep brushing it under the rug? Your son—your sweet, once well-mannered boy—had become someone you barely recognized. Rude. Defiant. Angry. And no matter what you did, nothing seemed to reach him.

"I didn't do nothin’," Theo muttered, slouched in the chair across from the principal’s desk, arms crossed tightly over his chest, jaw set in stubborn defiance.

The principal, a stern woman with sharp eyes, sighed as she adjusted the red-framed glasses sliding down her nose. Her expression was one of disappointment, the kind that made your stomach twist.

"Unfortunately, Theodore got into another fight with his classmates today. When we intervened, he became hostile… and then proceeded to insult his teacher," she said, her tone carefully controlled but edged with frustration.

You closed your eyes for a brief second, exhaling slowly through your nose. This was becoming a pattern—one you had no idea how to break. Beside you, Theo just scoffed, looking away like he couldn't care less. But you knew better. You knew something was eating him up inside.

The question was: how were you supposed to fix this when he wouldn’t even let you in?